Avoiding the Next Penguin Update

Now that it’s been a few months since the Penguin update took its toll, many affiliates are asking what they can do avoid further trouble? After all, Matt Cutts has already warned that the next round of Penguin will be jolting and jarring.

The days of quick and dirty SEO are long gone and today’s webmasters need to employ some strategic thinking. You need to set yourself up as a leader in your niche and a recognizable brand. Here’s what Dave Snyder had to say on the subject:

For me SEO is all about sustainability. If you’re going to go into the online marketing space you need to build a website the way you’re supposed to do it, not only from a search perspective, but from a social media perspective, too.

Add Value

All of our panelists suggested that one of the best ways of avoiding further Penguin trouble is by breaking out from the pack. Don’t do what everyone else in your niche is doing. Embracing that follow-the-crowd makes you a prime target for the next Penguin update.

Grimm puts it this way:

Some call it building a brand. Others call it building something unique. I don’t care how you do it, at the end day you need to be someone who can’t be delisted. Combine that with the right social signals and you’re good to go.

I think that what you have to do is what you’re supposed to do. Now that doesn’t mean listening to all the BS Google tells you to do…Build a high quality site that garners link attention. Make yourself one of those sites they can’t take out of the index.

How To Stand Out

Standing out isn’t as hard to do as you might think and it isn’t expensive, either says Sauer: Ask yourself, ‘What makes my site different?’ That is the first step. Then go for it! Be social and don’t rely only on Google.

All of our experts agreed that there are no shortcuts to avoiding trouble from the next Penguin update. Developing good content and partnerships are the only way to operate in this new SEO environment.

What are you doing to avoid trouble from the next Penguin update? Share your tips in the comments section below.

While it is convenient to attribute content and social to all Google’s updates, Penguin was mostly about off topic linking.

In effect, it looked like Penguin restructured a site’s linking profile, removing the PageRank influences found on off topic pages.
Additionally, this re-sampling targeted the anchor text found on non relevant links.